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Thiers Issard

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Thiers Issard

Thiers Issard or Thiers Issard Sabatier (French pronunciation: [tjɛʁ isaʁ sabatje]) is a French cutlery manufacturer, one of a number of companies using the Sabatier name. It exports a wide range of knives and straight razors to approximately thirty countries. It is viewed as one of the top cutlery firms in Europe.

Along with DOVO Solingen, Thiers Issard is a manufacturer of straight razors in Europe and the rest of the world. It also makes exclusive and very expensive Damascus steel knives. It is located in Thiers, France, and is one of the better known of many cutlery manufacturers in that area. It has also been manufacturing razor blades since 1920. Thiers Issard is popular with US retailers.

Thiers Issard was established in 1884 by Pierre Thiers (1860–1929). He was part of a family of master razor makers. The Thiers family owned their own forge. The "Chart of the Jurande" or the Professional Guild Charter of the time lists at least three "Thiers" as master razor makers.

In 1870 Pierre Thiers started as an apprentice to a master razor maker and, after 24 years in the trade, he had mastered the art well enough to become famous among the cognoscenti and connoisseurs of fine cutlery.

In 1884 Thiers established his own forge. He named his factory Thiers-Issard combining his last name and that of his wife as a way to differentiate himself from the rest of the family who owned similar businesses. From 1884 until his death in 1929, Thiers worked in his forge and died, reportedly, at work.

After his death, his son Pierre Thiers Jr. (1884–1962), assisted by his mother, continued the family business. Pierre Thiers Jr. worked as an apprentice under his father and was a skilled forger in his own right. As the business prospered, more family members joined the company starting with Louis Thiers (1910–1985) and later by another Pierre Thiers (1914–1997).

In 1985 the Thiers Issard company was acquired by Gilles Reynewaeter.

A straight razor blade (cut-throat razor) starts, at the Thiers Issard factory, as a shape called a blank supplied by the steel manufacturer. Thiers Issard traditionally has used Sheffield silver steel, long considered a superior quality carbon steel. The first step is to clean the blank using a heavy forge process called the detourage. Following the forging stage, a hole is drilled in the tang of the blade. This is a crucial step since after the steel hardening process it would be next to impossible to drill hardened steel without employing specialised methods such as electrical discharge machining, and even then the process would be too arduous to be practical. At this pre-hardening stage the decoration or guiochage of the blade is done, since the blade is malleable enough to be carved.

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